This announcement departs from our past exclusivity of Texan artists for moderndallas,because of the importance of the opening of the actively collecting non-profit Goss-Michael Foundation, founded in 2007. Its new larger headquarters with higherceilings and larger doorways is strategically located close to the recently positionedDallas Contemporary.

Musician George Michael and his partner Kenny Goss focus on cutting-edge Britishcontemporary art. The Goss-Michael collection at present is reportedly in the $500 millioncategory. This remodeled 12,000 square foot warehouse at 1405 Turtle Creek Boulevardincludes three spacious galleries and is close to four times the size of the original location.Now GMF will have the space to exhibit art from the permanent collection, the newacquisitions along with rotating curated shows throughout the year. Also room is providedfor a bookstore, library, private offices and a catering kitchen. Future GMF projects include educational programs, a lecture series, studios for an artist-in-residence program andevents to accompany opening shows.

Both collections represent 20th and 21st century British contemporary artists comparableto those represented by established galleries in London, Beijing, Paris and New York andin collections such as the Tate Modern in London and the Dallas Museum of Art. “Withboth our Foundation and the Dallas Contemporary in the neighborhood, there will bea synergistic energy for the development of contemporary and modern art in Dallas,”said Kenny Goss. “This is a critical component for a city the size of Dallas and one thathas been missing.”

Since so much publicity material is written about the GMF, this article has a differenttwist – very short biographies of six of the most known names in the opening groupexhibition along with critical events and history makers. This information is intended topoint out how fortunate we are GMF is on this side of the ocean and in all places,Dallas!

receive moderndallas.weekly

email:

After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale’s School of Art in 1966Michael Craig-Martin moved to London. He is especially noted for teaching the YoungBritish Artists in the 80s at Goldsmith’s College and being instrumental in the historicalexhibit “Freeze” (1988) on a Docklands including 16 of their students such as GaryHume, Richard Patterson and Fiona Rae. (YBA was actually coined in 1996).

Damien Hirst, the main organizer of “Freeze,” set an example of artist-as-curator andartist-run exhibition spaces in the 90s. Hirst went on to become the world’s mostexpensive living artist selling a piece for 160 million at Sotheby’s in 2008. In theGMF is his “Saint Sebastian, Exquisite Pain,” reportedly to cost $7 million. The 10-foottall glass and steel case contains a black furry calf, stabbed with arrows, hangingfrom a white steel I-beam, and floating in water and formaldehyde.

One of the visitors to “Freeze” was Charles Saatchi, a contemporary collector whoinvented the name Young British Artist; he bought Hirst’s first animal installation.Saatchi’s collection was so immense and global that when he purchased ordivested himself of major works of a particular artist such as Hirst or Emin it hada significant upward/downward effect on the art market worldwide. Saatchi-sponsored exhibitions such as “Sensation” also contributed to the YBAs’ success.

An event to cause intense media coverage of young Britainartists is the Turner Prize(founded in 1984 and named after the painter J.M.W. Turner); several YBAs werewinners. As of 2004, 40 pounds is the amount of the monetary award. Every yearfour artists under 50 are nominated whose work is then exhibited at the Tate Britain. A panel of judges chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate Modern, hasalready chosen the winner, a future international rising star. Other winning celebritiesinclude the Chapman Brothers (Jake and Dinos), Fiona Banner, Chris Ofili, Sam Taylor-Wood, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whitread.

This generation of British artists’ status rose in the US with the full scale exhibit“Brilliant” in 1995 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, putting this group in withnon-British Neo-Conceptual artists. The opening of the Tate Modern in 2000 laudedHirst and Emin, the YBA’s main provocateurs.

In 1999 Tracey Emin (born 1963) was nominated for the Turner. Her main exhibit“My Bed,” consisted of her own disheveled, stained bed surrounded by detritusincluding used condoms and soiled underwear. Subsequently a room wasdedicated to her in Tate Britain for a year before being placed in storage. Shewas nominated for the Turner but Steve McQueen won it. In 2007 she representedGreat Britain in the Venice Biennale.

Damien Hirst

Tracey Emin

Editioned teapot by Tracey Emin

Installation shot in new space, sculpture by Marc Quinn, painting by Craig-Martin.

Former YBA Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is the featured artist in the traveling 2010-2011 BritishArt Show 7. Every five years it shows the next generation; this time stopping in London,Glasgow, Nottingham and Plymouth attracting 300,000 visitors. Out of a retail space inLondon, The Shop, she and Emin sold artworks they made ranging from T-shirts withslogans to printed mugs. Lucas has declined the Turner Prize nomination.

Marc Quinn (born 1964) an obvious YBA, uses unusual mediums such as ice, glass, leadand blood to describe people’s obsession with the body. He wasn’t in Hirst’s “Freeze”but he was in “Saatchi’s “Sensation.” His signature piece “Self” is a frozen ephemeralsculpture of the artist’s head made out of the artist’s blood over a period of five months. “The Goss-Michael Foundation challenges preconceived art notions and strives to seta new standard in artistic awareness...There are no boundaries to our collection. Everywork, regardless of medium, must resonate with us on a personal level.”